First rioter to enter U.S. Capitol in Jan. 6 attack sentenced to more than 4 years in prison

A Kentucky man who authorities assert was the first rioter to breach the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and “helped light the fire” to try to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison.

Michael Sparks, 47, was convicted in March of two felonies and several misdemeanors for his role. In court papers, the U.S. attorney’s office in D.C. described the factory worker as one of the most concerning and angriest members of the hundreds who stormed the Capitol, saying he “led the violent mob … in an effort to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly sentenced Sparks to four years and four months in prison, slightly less than the four years and seven months prosecutors had sought. The felonies the jury convicted him on were obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder. Court documents show Sparks has been freed on personal recognizance since his arrest in Kentucky in January 2021.

Prosecutors said Sparks was part of a group of rioters — including one clutching a Confederate flag and another holding a sharpened spear — who came close to Vice President Mike Pence as Pence was being hustled out of the building for safety. The group confronted U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, who diverted them away from an area Pence had just passed through. Rioters had earlier chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” after his refusal to heed President Donald Trump’s demand that he head off the electoral college count.

Sparks, prosecutors said in court papers, pointed his finger at Goodman — the officer’s hand on his holstered service weapon and threatening to shoot — screaming, “This is our America! This is our America” while wearing black gloves imprinted with the image of a skeleton.

Sparks’s attorney, Scott T. Wendelsdorf with the federal public defender service in Louisville, argued in a sentencing memorandum filed in court that his client followed the mob but did not lead them and that he was among the more peaceful of the group of demonstrators.

Wendelsdorf noted that it was a member of the Proud Boys, whose leader is serving 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy for leading the riot, who used a stolen police riot shield to break a window on the Capitol’s west side. It was that window that Sparks climbed through as authorities said another rioter was simultaneously breaking an adjacent window with a two-by-four beam.

The defense attorney argued in court papers that assertions that his client was the “first to enter the building” are “technically true in a timeline sense,” but that Sparks “did not lead the crowd into the building or cause the breach through which he and others entered. Actually, there were eight different points of access that day separately and independently exploited by the protesters.”

Wendelsdorf argued that once inside, Sparks was “among the less culpable offenders in the Capitol breach.” He said his client articulated his political views, including to Goodman, and then “literally quit the protest and walked away” when “it became evident to him that Vice President Pence was not, in fact, going to declare Trump president as Trump had assured his followers that he would.”

The attorney disputed an account from prosecutors that Sparks and others “chased” Goodman, saying they followed as Goodman led them away from a corridor that led to the Senate chambers and to an area where additional police officers were stationed. Wendelsdorf wrote that Sparks never threatened Goodman, that Sparks protected him from being attacked by another protester and that in early accounts to the FBI, Goodman did not describe Sparks as a threat.

Sparks was driven to anger and extremes through social media and religious fervor, according to an account of his actions published in The Washington Post a month after the insurrection. That article notes that in his booking photo, he wore a T-shirt inscribed with “Armor of God” and quotes from a Bible verse about standing “against the devil’s schemes.”

Prosecutors said in their sentencing memorandum that Sparks entered the Capitol despite warnings from people behind him not to, and that his actions “acted like a green light for everybody behind him. … One might say Sparks helped light the fire that day using preparation and planning — including his protective body armor — to steel himself against officers attempting to hold back the mob.”

Prosecutors said Sparks and others entered the Capitol one floor above where Pence and senators were in session. In a criminal complaint, the FBI said a video published by The Post shows Sparks with a group of protesters inside the Capitol.

The group with Sparks encountered the lone Goodman at the bottom of a staircase, “standing in a doorway, trying to fend off a mob of armed rioters from further penetrating the building,” according to the sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors.

Goodman testified their chants were deafening, as they demanded, “Where they counting the f------ votes? Where they counting them votes at?” the sentencing memo states.

Prosecutors said that the group, with Sparks, advanced even after Goodman threatened to shoot, and ultimately chased him up the stairs. “Sparks not only refused to leave, he shouted back at the police. Pointing at Goodman, Sparks shouted: ‘No, we’re here for you. We’re here for you guys’, prosecutors wrote.

Once police had gained some control, prosecutors said Sparks, “likely realizing that he could not breach this last police line, turned around and left the building. At this time, 2:26 p.m., the Vice President had just been evacuated — passing through a hallway just yards away from the place Sparks was occupying.”